Bring him back
by planet p
Summary: Broots is kidnapped and Miss Parker and her team are sent to rescue him, but someone else gets there first. Pretty lame.


**Bring him back** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.

* * *

There's blood on his face, a deep gash on his cheek, in his arm, and he's shaking, but the girl's shaking more; shaking, breathing.

Miss Parker's shaking too, her legs are shaking under her, she just saw Debbie die, and come back to life. She's not sure she's still sane; maybe she's gone mad in just seconds, maybe she'd lost her mind, because Debbie cannot be alive after the bullet through her heart, gun pressed to her chest, and trigger pulled.

She remembers Debbie's lifeless body hitting the floor, the dust that rose around her, as though to embrace her; the endless sound of nothing.

Then, how much time later, she simply couldn't say, a blinding light, and out of the blinding light, Debbie alive, and Lyle touching her face, brushing the dust from her eyelids, resting his head to her head, the sound of Debbie coughing, her words harsh, crunchy, "You bring him back! Bring him back!"

Debbie's hand on his arm, pushing him back, away.

A pained look, "He's gone."

She won't let the tears fall, and they shine in her eyes like sapphires. "Help him! Help him! You have to help him!" The tears are in her voice, a whine, a yelp. "I _can't_ lose him!"

"Darlin'-"

"NO! YOU CAN'T SAY IT! YOU CAN'T SAY-"

"He's gone."

The tears pour down her face, but she turns her head sharply; she won't look at him, he's let her down.

Lyle stands, then, and walks away. There's nothing in his eyes now.

Debbie drops her head and cries; her dad's dead. Her dad's dead! She came to get him back, and now he's dead! She missed him!

Minutes later, Lyle returns. Slurs when he tells her, "It's done."

Debbie sniffs, raises her head, and pushes herself to her feet. She slips past him, out of the room, and disappears into the corridor.

* * *

They're at the airport again, standing in the departures lounge, waiting for a return flight plus one, that'd be Debbie. That morning, when she'd left to rescue Broots, Miss Parker hadn't thought things'd go the way they had. Debbie wasn't supposed to be part of the deal, Broots was supposed to be okay, but now they have the file, and they're going to be confused and pissed when they learn that Broots is alive, Debbie's alive, but maybe she won't put that in the report, maybe they won't find out.

Sydney is tired, coffee in hand, and Lyle is asleep, resting on Sydney's arm, but Sydney's too tired, too worn to wake him and tell him to get the Hell off him. That was an important file! He's tired, angry too.

Miss Parker can't drink coffee – that light wasn't just a light – but she drinks it anyway. Broots has apologised, many times, but she doesn't care, not like she knows she's going to care later; even get mad later.

But the file's gone, the kidnappers gone. They've done nothing but lose, but they're alive, though it's a little hard to grasp that.

Her hands shake holding the coffee cup. It's a little strange to think, her brother's a Healer, but he kills girls, too. She doesn't understand, she's mad, madder yet, she can't think, she can't breathe, she takes another sip of her coffee. She'll need another before the plane, this one's almost done.

The jet's been called away for use for another duty, she's mad about that too. If it's some conference, she'll probably shoot someone.

* * *

She wakes him for boarding, Sydney's already got up.

But a Healer would Heal themselves, as well, she knows; there's no way he's a Gen 1. And the cut on his face isn't budging. A Healer wouldn't glow; she's never seen that before, it's not conventional.

She takes him aside, half an hour into the flight. "That's quite the gift."

His look says he's not pleased. "It's not a gift," is his reply.

"Looks to me that way," she comes back.

He turns away from her. "I don't control it, sometimes I can... encourage it."

"It seems to work for you."

He looks at her, his eyes a hard frown. "You'd know," he says, and moves past her, uncaring and determined. He won't let her stop him now.

She's after him. "Is that the way you think it works? You take it from one, you give it to another?"

He laughs, but doesn't turn. He won't face her, he won't bother. "It's them, not me. It's always there; it's there now. There's no such thing as God, there's no such thing as the Devil. There's only what happens, what people do, and what people believe. Good and evil are real because life is real, because _intelligent_ life is real. Seems to be the way, _stupid_ people, stupid creatures. They'll hurt it, break it, as soon as they put their hands on it. Gotta be better, gotta be more; why should it be yours when it can be mine? You're in it; you live. Look back, it _always_ hurts!"

"You _hurt_ those girls!"

"Everything!"

"If you hurt Debbie-"

"She'll be there, when we're gone."

"I don't know what that means!"

But he's _gone_. He won't let her win, and see.

* * *

_Sorry, I know this is lame; I'm just kinda stuck on the whole Healer thing at the moment. Sorry to inflict; thanks for reading! :-)_


End file.
